_Scutellaria lateriflora_
_Flowers_--Blue, varying to whitish; several or many, 1/4 in. long,
growing in axils of upper leaves or in 1-sided spike-like racemes. Calyx
2-lipped, the upper lip with a helmet-like protuberance; corolla
2-lipped; the lower, 3-lobed lip spreading; the middle lobe larger than
the side ones. Stamens, 4, in pairs, under the upper lip; upper pair the
shorter; 1 pistil, the style unequally cleft in two. _Stem:_ Square,
smooth, leafy, branched, 8 in. to 2 ft. high. _Leaves:_ Opposite, oblong
to lance-shaped, thin, toothed, on slender pedicles, 1 to 3 in. long,
growing gradually smaller toward top of stem. _Fruit:_ 4 nutlets.
_Preferred Habitat_--Wet, shady ground.
_Flowering Season_--July-September.
_Distribution_--Uneven throughout United States and the British
Possessions.
By the helmet-like appendage on the upper lip of the calyx, which to the
imaginative mind of Linnaeus suggested _Scutellum_ (a little dish),
which children delight to spring open for a view of the four tiny seeds
attached at the base when in fruit, one knows this to be a member of the
skullcap tribe, a widely scattered genus of blue and violet two-lipped
flowers, some small to the point of insignificance, like the present
species, others showy enough for the garden, but all rich in nectar,
and eagerly sought by their good friends, the bees.
The Larger or Hyssop Skullcap (_S. integrifolia_) rarely has a dent in
its rounded oblong leaves, which, like the stem, are covered with fine
down. Its lovely, bright blue flowers, an inch long, the lips of about
equal length, are grouped opposite each other at the top of a stem that
never lifts them higher than two feet; and so their beauty is often
concealed in the tall grass of roadsides and meadows and the undergrowth
of woods and thickets, where they bloom from May to August, from
southern New England to the Gulf of Mexico, westward to Texas.
Self-heal; Heal-all; Blue Curls; Heart-of-the-Earth; Brunella;
Carpenter-weed
_Prunella vulgaris_
_Flowers_--Purple and violet, in dense spikes, somewhat resembling a
clover head; from 1/2 to 1 in. long in flower, becoming 4 times the
length in fruit. Corolla tubular, irregularly 2-lipped, the upper lip
darker and hood-like; the lower one 3-lobed, spreading, the middle and
largest lobe fringed; 4 twin-like stamens ascending under upper lip;
filaments of the lower and longer pair 2-toothed at summit, one of the
teeth bearing an anther, the other tooth sterile; style thread-like,
shorter than stamens, and terminating in a 2-cleft stigma. Calyx
2-parted, half the length of corolla, its teeth often hairy on edges.
_Stem:_ 2 in. to 2 ft. high, erect or reclining, simple or branched.
_Leaves:_ Opposite, oblong. _Fruit:_ 4 nutlets, round and smooth.
_Preferred Habitat_--Fields, roadsides, waste places.
_Flowering Season_--May-October
_Distribution_--North America, Europe, Asia.
This humble, rusty green plant, weakly lopping over the surrounding
grass, so that often only its insignificant purple, clover-like
flower-heads are visible, is another of those immigrants from the old
countries which, having proved fittest in the fiercer struggle for
existence there, has soon after its introduction here exceeded most of
our more favored native flowers in numbers. Everywhere we find the
heal-all, sometimes dusty and stunted by the roadside, sometimes truly
beautiful in its fresh purple, violet, and white when perfectly
developed under happy conditions. In England, where most flowers are
deeper hued than with us, the heal-all is rich purple. What is the
secret of this flower’s successful march across three continents? As
usual, the chief reason is to be found in the facility it offers insects
to secure food; and the quantity of fertile seed it is therefore able to
ripen as the result of their visits is its reward. Also, its flowering
season is unusually long, and it is a tireless bloomer. It is finical in
no respect; its sprawling stems root easily at the joints, and it is
very hardy.